Wear out your free climbing boots to a debilitating point. Continually get hammered first at night only, but then by mid-morning on the Curry Deck as well. As the personal hygiene deteriorates to a homeostatic point you begin to see "natural lines" up there and start collecting bitchin' water bottles.

When I started climbing I didn't think I was only going to climb one pitch, boulder or only free climb. I thought climbing as a way to get to the top of something using any tool needed. So, I learned how to free climb the same time I learned to aid climb.

So, to answer your question. Start small and go big. As you would do anything in your life.

1990 spring-Brought lead rack of set of stoppers and hexes and 10 hand tied quickdraws and a rope. Roomates say "Chris you REALLY are going to kill yourself". Started setting up top rope anchors and top roping.

1990 summer lead a few 5.9's with my rack near Vail, not telling my belayer "This is my first lead watch me". and a few 5.9's in Eldo. People would give me weird looks when all i had was passive gear hanging from my rack in Eldo. ("your going to kill yourself") Tagger probably wasn't the best choice of leads with this gear. Young and didn't know the consequences of falling, was what kept me alive. the book "Freedom of the Hills" helped me a lot. roomates say ("Chris, You have not KILLED yourself YET!")

1990 later in summer. lied to a random more experience climber that I had been on a multipitch climb in Eldo before. Embarked on my first pitch of gear climbing more then a pitch off the ground. Took 1/2 hour to climb pitch. One hour to set up the belay. Random climber soloed the rest of route with me behind him. He was late for a wedding. Definitely a very good confident climber who i should not have lied to.

1990 winter- road trip to the desert and joshua tree. Figured we needed some active gear to use for the cracks. Brought 5 generic active gear "Things" from some where? We sent everything that we wanted to.

1991 winter- arrived in zion at night woke up and saw the walls. Too scared to climb anything more then a pitch off the ground.

1992 climbed stettner ledge's up near the Diamond in RMNP. We didn't moved fast enough bivied on mountain. Epic it was. I thought I was stettner himself with my wool knicker pants. First time in a alpine environment. A little rock helicoppered down on me at the start of the climb. I dove into a little nook like someone was throwing a hand granade at me. I still feel the energy up there.

1991 to 1995- Worked through the grades up to 5.11.

1996- the Diamond served as my First grade VI. A Constant struggle figuring out the tangles while leading. Luckly, had a very good experienced wall partner with me.

winter 1997- More walls in Zion. Got way faster and it started making sense.

next is Ice climbing
next mix Rock and Ice climbing
next AT skiing (Lucky, i am pretty good at this already).
next Alpine climbing putting all together in one push.
-Diamond in the winter
-Liberty Ridge
-Cassin Ridge Mount Foraker Mount Hunter Mooses tooth South America Himalaya's if i DARE.
Still wondering if i have the motivation for this?
other big walls in Remote places.

I guess a progression is: (some people fly through this progression in 3 years or less!) Some people take 20 years or more. Some people just stay at one type of climbing and love it.
1. Bouldering, shoes and chalk bag. Crash pad or just a piece of carpet to keep bottom of shoes clean.
2. Buy rope, gear when needed and start top roping, setting up natural anchors when needed.
3.Start lead climbing. Sport and Trad single pitch
4.Start multi pitch Sport and Trad.
5.Start aid climbing when you can't send that hard Trad pitch.
6.Clean Aid climbing
7.Aid climbing. Leaning to place Pitons, Heads, Rawl Drives/Spikes (Rivts), Bolts.
8.Wall climbing Aid climbing
9.Wall Climbing Free climbing.
10. Ice climbing
11. Mix climbing
12. Alpine Climbing on Big mountains/Big Walls!!!!

Edit: Burchery, Some people do go buy 3 Grand worth the gear and walk up and climb the nose on EL Capitan with little or no experience. Crazy stuff. Works for some people.

I'm with Warbler, as well. I regressed for a while, and then realized that I'd much rather just train harder and free the same terrain. Now I'm back to progressing with my climbing. To me, aid climbing is purely a tool, but certainly not a goal. That said, big wall taught me a lot, and it's amazing to climb such massive features.

My progression was like many others. Trad climb, aid single pitch, practice systems, fail on a wall, succeed on a wall, free my first wall, NIAD, haven't slept on a wall since 2006, but I still climb at least one a year without aid.

1977--drove to Yosemite with John Ely--climbed East Buttress, S.Face of Washington's Column, then Half Dome. (Stage 1)

Second trip to Yosemite, climbed El Cap Nose with Steve Chardon (ran out of water day 2).

Stage 2--interest in "nailing" routes--this was tougher, as most experienced big wallers wanted to climb with someone with experience. Tried the Shield with Ted Johnson--failed at roof (big earthquake shattered Ted's confidence). Begged a number of climbers to team up for another try--no joy.

Soloed the Prow in two bivies. Started soloing the Zodiac, took a big fall and nearly died with a "yer gonna die" self-designed solo system. Lydia Bradey joins me for successful ascent.

Can't remember what was next, but there were a few false starts, but at least now had some experience to cajole fellow sufferers.

There wasn't much information back then on what to do, how to do it, what kind of gear, etc. Even collecting the requisite water containers--old anti-freeze one gallon containers were the only thing that didn't spontaneously blow up on the first haul (but tasted toxic)--was a challenge.

Back then, there was a lot of social pressure to stick to the clean and fast walls (like Salathe) and eschew the nailing. But I figured there were bigger challenges outside of Yosemite that would still require the nailing techniques...

EDIT: here's some info from my first couple years living in the dirt of Yosemite.

Credit: deuce4

This "Climbing Record" is what was required back then to join the American Alpine Club...

1990
first trip to the valley climbed nutcracker and then a bunch of routes in Tuolumne
continued climbing all over the southwest

1992
Did 30 feet of aid in box canyon NM and drove to the valley to climb the Nose
Went up 5 pitches partner bailed, found new partners and climbed it in five days on the same trip.

1994 to 2012
sport climbed a bit and then fell into the world of bouldering
Bouldered all over the planet but spent most of my time at my favorite crag, Hueco Tanks

2012
decided to do another wall
did the NA after only bouldering for the last 12 years. I certainly slowed my partner down, but we had a good epic and a good time. I cannot wait to do it again soon and have started collecting gear to make the next trip more fun.

This is a good topic, I hope to see a lot more posts - so far they have been great.

I am not a wall climber, yet - I am firmly in the realm of "Big Wall Theorist" as some may say. With time, training and some luck, I will get there though. It's been a long process for me so far.

I got my introduction to roped climbing courtesy of the USMC when I was still in ROTC in Bridgeport, CA. Had a great time, but it didn't "take" at that point, so to speak.

Later on, I started to do some dumbass soloing, until I had a hold break and almost peeled off a cliff. Looked down, realized I was a moron, and stopped doing that.

Fast forward to 2002, I move to Vegas and start hanging out in Red Rock a lot. Hiking led to scrambling, scrambling led to me being 80ft up in a chimney and looking down and going "Wait, I said this was stupid. It's time to learn how to climb."

When I decide to get into something, it's usually full bore or not at all. So after a short time in the gym, I went and bought the standard sport stuff - draws, rope, etc. Not too bad, cost wise. Wasn't long after that, I see my first big wall story and start drooling over Yosemite. It would be 9 more years before I actually stepped into the Valley for the first time.

I was avoiding trad climbing like the plague due to my "full bore" mentality for a couple years, but then a friend took me out to Moderate Mecca one day. The first piece of gear that I cleaned, and I was hooked. This was awesome, I could see the placement, knew how long it had been there, and there was so much variety...not like unknown old bolts at all.

Fast forward 2 months after that, I have a pretty much a full double rack, and I am a month behind on my rent. Go figure.

So eventually, I came to a realization. I'm pretty lazy, and I don't have the desire or determination to train enough to climb "hard." I'm the most happy on 5.8 and 5.9, a good day is 5.10. And you aren't going to find a free big wall at that grade. So the thought of aid climbing started slipping into my head again, no matter how much I told myself that I wasn't going to spend money on all that damn aid and wall shite.

*Click* Full Bore Mode activated. Damnit!

Aiders, big wall harness, pins, ledge, sub bags, haul bags, bug the sh#t out of the Fish for gear, more pins, more gear, Chongo's Big Wall Book and How to be Bitchin book, tons of time on ST bugging Hudon, PTPP, poop tubes, jugging and setting the ledge up on the third floor porch, aiding dumb stuff, more aiding dumb stuff, more gear, more gear, bug PTPP and Hudon, etc etc. etc.

I used to laugh when people said their gear room was worth more then their car. They would just give me a sad look. Now I know why.

Anyways. so far I have managed a grand total of part of a pitch of New Dawn, which ended in a helicopter ride out of Yosemite and a break. Back to climbing, back to learning system, have a good climbing partner that's got it all down that's willing to teach me. Plans for Zion in the spring and maybe the Valley too. 10 years and counting, and I'm still not there yet. But I still wannabe ;)

yes, made an attempt on Lower Sentinel--it was a brilliant ice season--we climbed a new route near Nevada Falls, then tried the Lower Sentinel. First time up my crampons completely failed as I started the first pitch. Went back later and conditions had changed and got gripped at a dripping wet overlap about 90' up--I recall thinking that a whole section could come loose, but that was before I knew much about ice climbing.

Awesome Post Deuce,
When I started climbing you were already a big name. Cool to see how you grew into your big shoes even after numerous failed attempts. Kind of epitomizes the drive behind alot of your bigger known exploits.

Your list is a sort of who's who of climbing. I was particularly impressed with your many runs up Astroman. Seems today that people doing bigwalls are often pretty poor free climbers.